Promotional Information

Reveals how a focus on fitness has shaped not only our physiques but also, and more profoundly, American ideas of what "fitness" is.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Night to Remember 1. The Shape of History 2. Selling the Body Beautiful, 19001930s 3. America Shapes Up, 1930s1950s 4. The Machine Age, 1960s1970s 5. Gotta Move, 1960s1980s 6. The Buff Culture, 1970s1990s 7. Pumping Up Business, 1980s1990s 8. Fitness Today 9. Why Exercise? Notes Index

About the Author

Jonathan Black is a veteran of magazine editing, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Inc., Forbes, GQ, and the American Spectator. He is the author of Yes, You Can! Behind the Hype and Hustle of the Motivation Biz and has taught at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. 

Reviews

"While offering largely a chronology of the evolution of a uniquely American brand of fitness, Black is quick to provide scintillating glimpses into the lives of fitness icons and explore philosophical trends and lucrative business models. "--Kirkus Reviews "Making the American Body is a fascinating and informative sprint through the history of body worship from the classical Greeks to the present-day fanatics of fitness." - Pat Jordan, author of A False Spring "Jonathan Black vividly renders the trends and politics of the fitness movement through the decades, and many of the outsized personalities who have defined it. This is a fascinating and comprehensive look at what has become one of America's defining obsessions." - Charles Gaines, author and director of Pumping Iron "Big bodies and bigger personalities built the American fitness industry. Jonathan Black's excellent history, the first comprehensive account of this industry's emergence, is not just for fitness buffs. This is a great story that gets to the heart of two American obsessions: building muscles and making money. Informative, insightful, and highly entertaining." - Jonathan Eig, New York Times best-selling author of Luckiest Man, Opening Day, and Get Capone "An indispensable read for anyone who wants to understand the history of exercise in America and its occasional failings and many triumphs. It fills a long-neglected niche." - Richard Cotton, national director of certification for the American College of Sports Medicine